The Chilean was close to joining City in the summer and is out of contract at the conclusion of this year.

RATING: 7/10

VERDICT

Frightening to consider City could add even more ammunition to their attack but they are apparently willing to pay the £50million it would take to sign him in January.

However, the price seems incredibly high considering he will be available for free in the summer coupled to the fact he’s looked dreadfully short of form, scoring five goals in 14 appearances in all competitions.

THEO WALCOTT

Everton have contacted Arsenal over the availability of Theo Walcott as Sam Allardyce looks to finally replace Romelu Lukaku, according to the Daily Mail.

Walcott is yet to make a single start under Arsene Wenger this season and could seek a move in January to gain more game time.

RATING: 7/10

VERDICT

Having brought in a plethora of No10s in the summer, the Toffees were left dreadfully short of goals in attack with Lukaku departing for Manchester United.

A marriage of convenience could see Walcott move to Goodison Park although he will likely need to take a pay cut with his reported current £110,000 per week wages a potential sticking point.

Arsenal attacker Theo Walcott

DANNY ROSE

Manchester United are increasingly confident they can tie up a £50million deal for Tottenham left-back Danny Rose.

According to the Daily Mail, the England international could sign next month or during the summer transfer window.

RATING: 6/10

VERDICT

United were keen to sign Rose last summer but missed out because he was recovering from a long-term knee injury.

Spurs were also unwilling to sell another full-back after Kyle Walker joined Manchester City but Rose has been omitted from matchday squads sparking talk he could be moved on.

Ten Cate wants Jazira to 'fight like lions' in Club World Cup UAE opener

Al Jazira’s cubs will “fight like lions” in their bid to secure a berth in the Club World Cup’s quarter-finals, according to coach Henk ten Cate.

The Pride of Abu Dhabi are carrying the hopes of the host nation when the competition returns to the UAE for the first time in seven years, from December 6-16. They will need to navigate a tricky play-off against tournament veterans Auckland City of New Zealand at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium on Wednesday night (21:00 kick-off) before they can dream of meeting the likes of UEFA Champions League holders Real Madrid, AFC Champions League winners Urawa Red Diamonds or Copa Libertadores champions Gremio.

Problems on and off the pitch have negatively impacted a poor Arabian Gulf League title defence, lauded foreign additions such as Uzbekistan forward Sardor Rashidov and ex-France anchor Lassana Diarra barely featuring. This has led to opportunities for the likes of 19-year-old midfield powerhouse Eissa Al Otaibah and 20-year-old full-back Mohamed Al Attas, a situation Ten Cate is happy to repeat this evening against the part-timers.

“We have faced some difficulties, especially with our foreign players,” said the ex-Barcelona and Chelsea assistant. “We often played with just one foreign player, for different circumstances.

“We have given young players the chance to play for the first team and at the end, it is a big bonus.

A pre-match boost for Jazira is the return of pivotal Morocco midfielder Mbark Boussoufa after a month sidelined by injury. This partly compensates for the losses of Mohamed Jamal and Mohammed Fawzi.

In contrast to the tournament debutants, Auckland are seasoned performers at this level. The Navy Blues’ domination of the OFC Champions League makes this year’s edition a ninth entry, 2014’s run to third place their best return.

The ISPS Handa Premiership leaders – who include a driver and restaurant worker in their ranks – will plan to threaten with an attacking trio of Emiliano Tade, Ryan De Vries and Callum McCowatt.

“We understand Al Jazira is a very good rival,” said Spanish coach Ramon Tribulietx.

“This is the next level of football, we play week in week out at a different level. But we’ve been here before, we understand what it takes.”

Clubs

How Pogba, Beckham and Zidane helped shape adidas Predator into an icon

A lot of people blur the lines between iconic and popular and it’s an easy mistake to make because by all intents and purposes for something to be iconic it has to be popular.

The distinguishing factor between the two is longevity. Standing the trial of time is a challenge faced by brands across all industries and nowhere is that more prevalent than in the fast-moving world of football.

From clubs to players, matchballs to kits, iconicness towers over the cultural landscape of the beautiful game.

At the heart of it, is the boot, a recognisable artifact symbolic of generation after generation.

And one model has continuously set the standard – the adidas Predator.

Now, the genesis of an icon is no easy task but with Predator, adidas has indisputably understood and employed the right ingredients to cement a legacy as one of game’s greatest boots.

Connected to football’s most celebrated stars and synonymous with memorable moments – think David Beckham scoring from the halfway line against Wimbledon and Zinedine Zidane‘s perfectly pirouetted volley against Bayer Leverkusen – no other shoe has mastered the blend of heritage and innovation quite like Predator.

After a two-year retirement, the beast is back.

Since hitting the scene in 1994, the brainchild of former Liverpool midfielder Craig Johnston has developed to dominate both the market and the pitch.

From the rubber fins for ball manipulation to the fold-over tongues for a cleaner shooting zone, Predator almost single-handedly revolutionised boot design.

Such is it standing, few products have communicated the vision and values of adidas quite like Predator and when you look back, there has been a natural progression and evolution over the years.

While the new Predator 18+ is a subtle nod to the past, true to the brand, it’s built for the future.

But the construction of a reimagined icon presents many challenges and after a two-year assembly Sam Handy, vice president of design in adidas’ football division, believes his team has created what he describes is the “best boot” on the market.

“The boots have spent at least two years in development, from initial sketches to first prototypes,” Handy tells Sport360.

“The early prototypes we test on semi-pros or amateurs and then we build up through our testing process to the point where we are confident enough in the sample quality to test with professionals as well.

“Then we take their feedback, retest and then rebuild so it’s a very fluid and organic process of starting with a lot of people then working our way up to a few people.

“But we take the testing and the co-development with football players and then with the best professionals incredibly seriously.

While the professionals form an integral part of the rigorous testing process, keeping a secretive project like Predator underwraps meant the likes of Pogba were almost the last to know of its return.

“One interesting reality is we were secretly bringing Predator back but we didn’t even want to tell the players,” explains Dean Lokes, vice president for product in the adidas football division.

“There’s a dressing room and people talk. A lot of the prototypes didn’t have the toe, it was just a plain toe like an ACE (model) so we left it until the absolute last moment even for the players to know we were bringing Predator back.

“Some early prototypes have on the back of it ACE 18 360 which is the code name for Predator in the same type font as Predator.

“This detail was hidden for quite a long time because we know players talk and sometimes images get shot, even the secretness was held to the top players for as long as we could do.

“I think also what we may sometimes forget is, Pogba grew up wearing Predator.

“As much as we’re reconnecting the dots, the first time I talked to him, he talked about Predator, the colours of Predator, even though it was 10 years on from that period.”

Anticipation of its release saw Predator 18+ sell out within 10 minutes after launching in the UAE.

There was never any doubt the current generation of footballer would see the attraction of Predator but for the old-school boot man, the latest iteration is a big step away from the retro designs of the past.

As boot innovation has moved towards a focus on weight, the knitted design and laceless structure has become the standard.

The sockfit collar, which works to naturally expand to the foot’s shape, provides an ideal second skin for players who like to create, minimising the material between foot and ball.

But transitioning Predator from a design perspective was one of the brand’s biggest challenges.

Handy adds: “We had really good innovation, which allowed us to bring Predator back and the biggest design challenge we had through the process was to not build a retro product.

“Everyone is in love with old shoes and they’ve seen what we’ve done with the Precision bring back, with the Precision Ultra Boost and the Beckham shoes and they’re so iconic, exciting and beautiful shoes that we don’t want to make a retro.

“We want to make a Predator for 2018 that no one has ever seen before but that seamlessly connects through design language and through experience, that it feels like a Predator.

“That’s the hardest bit, to not go backwards. It would have been the easiest thing to put a fold on the tongue, it would have been the easiest thing to give it bladed studs and make it out of leather but that isn’t what our Predator and ACE players wanted.

“They want something different and we’ve built a boot for the future player and not a heritage product. That was the challenge.”

The creative direction for adidas is of course being driven by next year’s World Cup.

A plethora of new products are yet to hit the market with Predator 18+ just the tip of the releases but while the world focuses their attention on what will be on display in Russia, adidas are looking to the future.

“We’re already working on Euro 2020. We work two years out in terms of timeline so for us it’s really exciting to work on World Cup 2018 products for the last two years and to launch it now,” Handy explains.

“We’ve been looking at these for quite a long time and back in Germany we’re in the process of Euro 20 right now.”